Transforming our cities while we keep the taps and toilets working

Transforming our cities while we keep the taps and toilets working

Australia is struggling to retain the skills and knowledge needed for urban water management to evolve to the next level. How can we best tackle these skills shortages to meet the challenges ahead? Read this AWA Water Journal article to find out.

Australia, the land of drought and flooding rains, is known globally for excellence in urban water management. Yet our sector is fragile. We face a struggle to retain key skills and knowledge and attract the staff required for service delivery, while simultaneously pursuing agendas for urban transformation.

The Australian water sector has to have the capacity to deliver both reliable service levels and the transformations required to enable our urban places to prosper and thrive in the 21st century. But how? What kinds of skills profiles are needed to meet these challenges? What professional development, education and training should we be investing in?

This article draws on the concept of skill profiles to outline how skills and knowledge are embodied in people found in organisations, characterising water professionals into those with ‘I-shaped’ specialist skills profiles, and those with ‘T-shaped’ profiles which play a vital role in enabling innovation and change.